It sure widens my window of hope.
It makes me all smiles.
It sure upgrades my soul and uplifts my spirits.
It makes me whisper to my self again but with a strong voice: ya love does exist and its power does miracles.
It is God’s grace that awakens our faith in Him by the power of love.
Here comes the story of Mohammad and Walla, like a bright star in a dark sky.
A story beyond belief, beyond mind , beyond imagination..
Simply..a love story. But what is not so simple is the challenges both Mohammad and Walla are facing.
What is not so simple and ordinary is the courage and the faith these two young people have.
But what is so simple in this real drama is the souls of these tow young people…their innocence… their natural optimism and innate faith in life.
Thank you Mohammad and Walla… you come out as a rose garden in the midst of barren hearts. And we owe you a great deal in return.
Many hearts will beat again and come alive by your story. Many hearts will keep you both in their prayers.
( full story: Almasry Al youm, Wednesday, August 29, 2007)
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
I whispered to my self with a fainted voice…
I am worried. Some alarming signs are showing on my mental home page. I have worked hard to keep that sense of internal balance between my sensitivity to the plight of others, be it a person or a nation, and my optimism and faith in the wisdom of life. I get worried when such questions come popping up on my mental home page:
Ø Why write? Why care?
Ø What is the use? You are just knocking your head against the wall!
Ø The world has never been better and it will never be!
Ø Evil and fanaticism are winning the war!
Ø Freedom, justice, civil rights are privileges of the rich and the powerful!
Ø Look around: mass killings and destruction in the name of DEMOCRACY, and personal killings and suicide and selling ones children or ones kidney under the force of poverty…
Ø What would few helpless words do?
Ø What would some warm shed tears solve?
Ø Close your books, delete your files, burn your papers or feed them to the fish in your beloved sea !
Ø Bury your dreams once again and wake up..you can never change the world!
“Ya .. I can’t , but I have my own… I have that secret window of hope that keeps my heart opened onto daylight in the darkest of times… “
I whispered to my self with a fainted voice…
Ø Why write? Why care?
Ø What is the use? You are just knocking your head against the wall!
Ø The world has never been better and it will never be!
Ø Evil and fanaticism are winning the war!
Ø Freedom, justice, civil rights are privileges of the rich and the powerful!
Ø Look around: mass killings and destruction in the name of DEMOCRACY, and personal killings and suicide and selling ones children or ones kidney under the force of poverty…
Ø What would few helpless words do?
Ø What would some warm shed tears solve?
Ø Close your books, delete your files, burn your papers or feed them to the fish in your beloved sea !
Ø Bury your dreams once again and wake up..you can never change the world!
“Ya .. I can’t , but I have my own… I have that secret window of hope that keeps my heart opened onto daylight in the darkest of times… “
I whispered to my self with a fainted voice…
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Empowerment To Be: The Way....can we do it without knowledge?
This could sound as if there is only one road to empowerment. In fact The Way varies with one’s conception and motives or desires or even dreams. One is seeking spiritual empowerment; another economic or political…one aspires for his ideals of the good human being, another dreams of life of influence and power or fame.
Personally I am always amazed by two worlds: the world of Olympic Sports where participants challenge the ordinary, the normal, and the limits of normal human capabilities and take us beyond mind and what it can comprehend and foresee. Especially when our sense of beauty is stretched beyond what it can bear. The other world is that of spiritual empowerment. The world of mystics and Sufis where one reclaims his/her wholeness, and sees with the Heart the true human nature, whether it is pure light or pure energy or just a handful of blessed earth. Both worlds look as if miles away. But to me they are as much the same in essence; in what they require To Be and in what meaningful lessons they teach the initiates. Watching some of the Olympian games fills we with the same spiritual energy I encounter as reading or listening to a Mystic writer or a Sufi 3alim.
You may opt for Muslim prayers and zhikr or Indian meditation and mantras or Japanese Zen or Chinese Chi Kung or whatever you are attuned to…the lesson I learned is that none of the tools would do the trick unless an internal switch is turned on: the desire To Be. And I actually prefer the word DREAM…the dream To Be. Desires come and go. But our true dreams are deep seated, engraved in our psyche and our soul; they give us Bad Headaches once in a while when we try to abandon them. The tools whatever they might be are aids to awaken the dream…to attune our energy towards the path, towards fulfillment.
And there remains one tool, the mother of all. That is knowledge. Here I come to straight book talk. Knowledge is the first and most important and powerful tool of empowerment on every level. Acquiring and seeking knowledge becomes my first responsibility as a human being towards myself. Responsibility to seek and acquire the knowledge I need to (1) activate my internal potential, and to (2) tap and mobilize resources to (3) make it ready for use and (4) and to use it.
Use it for what? Use it for the fulfillment of not only self, not only the physical, not only the material; but that which is beyond Personality.
Knowledge, with a capital K, is in fact the real investment capital of the future.
And let me tell you something else, one more lesson: One can’t empower oneself without empowering one’s community. The two go hand in hand. But I leave this to a different visit.
Personally I am always amazed by two worlds: the world of Olympic Sports where participants challenge the ordinary, the normal, and the limits of normal human capabilities and take us beyond mind and what it can comprehend and foresee. Especially when our sense of beauty is stretched beyond what it can bear. The other world is that of spiritual empowerment. The world of mystics and Sufis where one reclaims his/her wholeness, and sees with the Heart the true human nature, whether it is pure light or pure energy or just a handful of blessed earth. Both worlds look as if miles away. But to me they are as much the same in essence; in what they require To Be and in what meaningful lessons they teach the initiates. Watching some of the Olympian games fills we with the same spiritual energy I encounter as reading or listening to a Mystic writer or a Sufi 3alim.
You may opt for Muslim prayers and zhikr or Indian meditation and mantras or Japanese Zen or Chinese Chi Kung or whatever you are attuned to…the lesson I learned is that none of the tools would do the trick unless an internal switch is turned on: the desire To Be. And I actually prefer the word DREAM…the dream To Be. Desires come and go. But our true dreams are deep seated, engraved in our psyche and our soul; they give us Bad Headaches once in a while when we try to abandon them. The tools whatever they might be are aids to awaken the dream…to attune our energy towards the path, towards fulfillment.
And there remains one tool, the mother of all. That is knowledge. Here I come to straight book talk. Knowledge is the first and most important and powerful tool of empowerment on every level. Acquiring and seeking knowledge becomes my first responsibility as a human being towards myself. Responsibility to seek and acquire the knowledge I need to (1) activate my internal potential, and to (2) tap and mobilize resources to (3) make it ready for use and (4) and to use it.
Use it for what? Use it for the fulfillment of not only self, not only the physical, not only the material; but that which is beyond Personality.
Knowledge, with a capital K, is in fact the real investment capital of the future.
And let me tell you something else, one more lesson: One can’t empower oneself without empowering one’s community. The two go hand in hand. But I leave this to a different visit.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Empowerment..a different beat
The whole world is up to its ears on “empowerment,” empowerment of women, of youth, of the poor and the list goes on and on. More and more money is spent on “strategic TALK” than on the actual doing.
From my own life-long meditation on the meaning of life and the essence of our being, I strongly feel and believe that human’s empowerment is part of our creation. This is the base, the building ground, it is internal, God-given, the potential for empowerment is in every one of us; empowerment not to dominate not to control but to live in harmony. To live in harmony with one self this is empowerment, to live in harmony with ethics, with our environment, with all form of life in general.
Empowerment is faith, trust, kindness, empathy and compassion. As women we do score high on these qualities. No offence to men! And because it is not good for ones soul to have every thing, especially women, they are kept low on socio-political empowerment.
But watch out, because of our emotional quality, we are told repeatedly that women are weak, helpless, and silly, can’t withstand hardships, and at the end of the list: we are told and taught that women are the weaker sex, even though they are in charge of bearing and raising children, they are educators, planners, peace makers, organizers and managers of family life and the lives of its members!
The real problem is when we women believe that we are weak and silly, contriving and, act accordingly. And develop thus hideous ways to control.
The real problem is when we raise our daughters believing this stereotyped mental set. We then fulfill the prophecy and keep it alive eternally.
In fact in every human culture there is a SOURCE, an ESSENCE of what could be called “AUTHENTIC POWER” from which we learn that kindness, grace and mercy, are the essence of authentic empowerment. Without these values taking deep roots in our minds and souls, no form of material empowerment would do the trick…setting us on the journey of authentic liberation.
From my own life-long meditation on the meaning of life and the essence of our being, I strongly feel and believe that human’s empowerment is part of our creation. This is the base, the building ground, it is internal, God-given, the potential for empowerment is in every one of us; empowerment not to dominate not to control but to live in harmony. To live in harmony with one self this is empowerment, to live in harmony with ethics, with our environment, with all form of life in general.
Empowerment is faith, trust, kindness, empathy and compassion. As women we do score high on these qualities. No offence to men! And because it is not good for ones soul to have every thing, especially women, they are kept low on socio-political empowerment.
But watch out, because of our emotional quality, we are told repeatedly that women are weak, helpless, and silly, can’t withstand hardships, and at the end of the list: we are told and taught that women are the weaker sex, even though they are in charge of bearing and raising children, they are educators, planners, peace makers, organizers and managers of family life and the lives of its members!
The real problem is when we women believe that we are weak and silly, contriving and, act accordingly. And develop thus hideous ways to control.
The real problem is when we raise our daughters believing this stereotyped mental set. We then fulfill the prophecy and keep it alive eternally.
In fact in every human culture there is a SOURCE, an ESSENCE of what could be called “AUTHENTIC POWER” from which we learn that kindness, grace and mercy, are the essence of authentic empowerment. Without these values taking deep roots in our minds and souls, no form of material empowerment would do the trick…setting us on the journey of authentic liberation.
If there is only one thing..
If there is only one thing one needs to control it would be the force of fear and the need to control.
I wonder how many lives are crippled by the force of unhealthy fear and stagnated by the obsessive need to control?
I wonder how many lives are crippled by the force of unhealthy fear and stagnated by the obsessive need to control?
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
An old hand but a new comer
Before 25 years I tried to capture my students’ attention and send them flying into the future envisioning some of its colorful promises. I preached in my sermon that the classroom as we know it now will be obsolete and that if one doesn’t join the world of computers will be a certified member of the club of new illiterates. I didn’t foresee however that oldies like me, even with PhD’s, would have any learning disabilities visa-a-vie this new world of IT. The truth came on hard and scary. After so much money and time spent on training courses in vain, the industry reached a point where life wasn’t life any more without the e-mail, word and the Internet and for me the power point. These are the boundaries of my new discovered world.
It is only last year that I discovered the word “bloger” while researching a project on Arab youth. Wow! Is the immediate reaction for this wealth of heart youthful beat. Ever since the idea played around in my mind and at last I gave in.One major discovery to share: the biggest learning disability is the FEAR OF LOOSING CONTROL
It is only last year that I discovered the word “bloger” while researching a project on Arab youth. Wow! Is the immediate reaction for this wealth of heart youthful beat. Ever since the idea played around in my mind and at last I gave in.One major discovery to share: the biggest learning disability is the FEAR OF LOOSING CONTROL
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